Take Heart

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Tom Bolton

Humura

Take heart beautiful one.
In our Father’s eye, you are beautiful and whole.
From brokenness, you are restored when you speak to God.    
By grace, you are restored.
Hopeful, may you be filled with joy.
In our family today, we clasp each other–
Humura!
Take heart.
Restored, it feels so good.
In the presence of the Holy One, we are
Filled with Joy.
We enter this day with some small worries.
Our worries are large as we see them.
Cast them away!
Humura.
Take heart beautiful one.
Blessings in this sunny day.

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Posted on September 6, 2012 by Tom Bolton

There is much truth in this post by OverwhelmedByJoy. I’m glad she visited my blog today,

Overwhelmed By Joy's avatarOverwhelmedByJoy

 

“Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys.  If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.”   – Fyodor Dostoevsky

 

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The Line

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Tom Bolton

The Line premieres on Oct. 2 at 8 p.m. EDT, in Washington, D.C. The premiere will be followed by a panel discussion on poverty with leading scholars, policy advisers, and religious experts.

College campuses, churches, and homes across the country will host screenings of the film and live stream the panel discussion.

No screenings are scheduled in Wisconsin yet. We may need to work on that.

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Loving My Sons

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Tom Bolton

I was struggling with some things this past weekend, but it was a joy to have both sons and my daughter-in-law at home on Friday and Saturday and some of Sunday.  I was blessed.

Loving My Sons

I rejoiced this week,
Even as I was stressed by family concerns
away from home,
As sons and daughter came home to
Care and be cared for.
The laughter lifted me.
The simple meals shared at one table strengthened me.
The times simply together restored my joy.
I was blessed this week
By sons and a daughter now at home.

(c) Tom Bolton, 9/4/2012, Milwaukee.

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Grounded in Prayer

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Tom Bolton

Grounded in Prayer

No longer am I bapfuye behagazi.
I am restored, bright-eyed in this community.
And yet, wide-awake, I am disturbed too often.
The call of Christ is welcome, and I grab it as
shelter,
and yet,
There is no barrier for life itself.
In this life–indeed, in the Gospel–Jesus is life.
Jesus has brought peace to me, and
I relish the peace of Christ.
Restored and reconciled, I am joyful in the Word.
Yet, as I respond to the disciple-call,
There is commotion and families are changed,
and distant friends,
and old teams re-formed,
and brothers afraid,
and sisters lost,
and parents unsure.
This call is a call to royal priest-hood.
Keep me in this world as a disciple for as long as I must be.
Make me a servant, a listener.
Let me be love here.

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The Program from Hopeful for Those Who Hunger

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Tom Bolton

Here is the Powerpoint from the program on August 26:

Hopeful_08262012

We didn’t end up using the video, because it was really audio with no need for the guests to read along.  But this gives you some idea of the flow and the continuity.  I think it was cohesive.

And this will be my last post on the poetry reading!

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Class Meetings Anyone?

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Tom Bolton

Paragraph 256.1b in the UMC Book of Discipline is a wonderful direction, it seems to me. It provides important guidance to the Wesleyan way of Christian formation and seems to encourage the use of classes and class leaders even today:

Accountable Discipleship—Historically class leaders provided lay pastoral leadership, and classes and class meetings were the basic structural means of Christian spiritual formation in the early Methodist societies.

Class leaders may be commissioned and classes may be organized within the local congregation for the purpose of forming persons as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ through mutual accountability and support for witnessing to him in the world and for following his teachings through acts of compassion, justice, worship, and devotion under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Here is a good GBOD web page on this:  Class Leadership in Covenant Discipleship.

How many churches today actually commission class leaders?

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